


Trick or Treat

by BrownieFox



Series: If At First You Don't Succeed [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Enochian, Gen, I Make Stuff Up, Seth Wesson - Freeform, Sort Of, Time Travel AU, Time Travel Fix It, Trickster Gods, enochian-speaking sam, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29015352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/pseuds/BrownieFox
Summary: Dean and John take a series of odd cases. Seth is sent as back up. A Trickster is confronted.
Relationships: Dean Winchester & John Winchester, Sam Winchester & Ava Wilson, Sam Winchester & Dean Winchester
Series: If At First You Don't Succeed [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1364314
Comments: 5
Kudos: 69





	1. Chapter 1

When there was a knock at the door, Dean didn’t care if it was the pizza boy or their hunt taking the initiative to kill them, Dean was glad that something was there to distract from the tension in the room.

That being said, Seth Wesson being the ‘guy nearby’ Bobby had sent over probably wasn’t going to help the situation much. 

“Seth.” Dean blinked in surprise. Seth stood in the doorway of the hotel room, tall as ever, hair even longer than the last time Dean had seen it. There was a young girl, maybe about Sam’s age, standing with him. She had brown hair cut into bob and green eyes that made her look almost like she could be related to Seth. 

“Bobby said you needed help.”

“Of course Wesson shows up.” John grumbled from the small table where he was flipping through lore books. 

“I was on my way in the direction.” Seth defended. “An, ah, acquaintance of mine needs help moving and I have a truck.”

“And what’s this ‘aquantince’s’ name? How do we know you’re not running off to meet with demons?” John growled. Seth almost looked amused by the threat.

“Mind if we come in? It  _ is  _ raining out here.” 

Dean let the two in and felt the tension in the room crank up a few notches.

“So, did Bobby tell you about the case?” Dean asked. Seth nodded, sitting down on one of the beds, the girl following his lead and looking around the room, eyes lingering on the guns and knives that had been left out. 

“Yeah, and I’m almost positive I know what you’re up against, but it’d be a good idea to go over it again.” Seth made a gesture for them to go on ahead with it.

“Well… we picked up the case when we found a very strange report.” Dean started, shifting a bit awkwardly.

“It’s a case, ‘strange’ was what you were looking for.” Seth said, but there was this kind of glint in his eyes. He knew what was coming after all. It sort of reminded Dean of when Sammy had finally put in place a retaliation prank and was waiting for Dean to stumble across it. 

“Apparently, a guy who was poaching rare animals got gored by a unicorn.” 

And there, the smirk that had been quivering at the corner of Seth’s mouth morphed into a full-blown grin. The girl next to him made a surprised sound, and then coughed into her fist in a terrible attempt to conceal a laugh. She shot Seth a look and he motioned for her to wait while gesturing for Dean to keep going. 

And thus, the tale was unwound. The poucher had crashed through a diner window, found dead in one of the booths with the tip of the unicorn’s horn still stuck in his chest. The chef there had apparently been finishing cleaning up on his own when it happened. He’d heard the commotion, but hadn’t seen the actual attack. He had, however, recounted the sound of hooves and a whiney ‘like you’ve never heard the likes of’. Before that case was solved, another popped up of a man claiming Captain America came and beat him up. It was later revealed the man beat his kids. John and Dean had been ready to just let that one go and stay focused on the unicorn case when the third thing happened; the owner of the diner got mauled to death by a crocodile. In the sewers.

Seth had shaken his head and muttered, just loud enough to hear, ‘that’s the classic’. 

“And what else?” Seth prompted. 

“That’s not enough for you?” John huffed. Seth looked between John and Dean. 

“There's still the final give-away. What happened between you two?” 

Dean very deliberately didn’t look at John.

“Sam’s school called.” John said, straightening in his chair, arms folded. “Asked if I was Bobby Singer, needed to talk about Dean’s absence.”

“You knew he was going to school.” Seth said, clearly trying to figure out where this was going. Dean had been secretive about his studying, but he’d known there was a solid chance John had been aware of it anyway. No, that wasn’t the issue. 

“They wanted to know if I was Bobby,” John repeated, “Because they needed to talk to Dean’s legal guardian.”

Dean closed his eyes, not wanting to see Seth’s reaction. He knew that Seth had been aware of the fact that Bobby had legally adopted them - or as legal as Hunters ever get. They hadn’t told John, however, and he wasn't ready to see if Seth disapproved at the decision. It was none of his business, really, but dammit if Dean didn't, for reasons beyond him, care about the Man of Letter's opinion.

“Hm, a little bit more… obvious and serious than his usual fare.”

Dean opened his eyes back up to see that Seth didn’t look disappointed or surprised, but instead considering and thoughtful. Dean’s drew his eyebrows together, going back over what Seth had asked. 

“You think John finding out about the whole Bobby thing is part of the case.” 

“I  _ know  _ it’s part of the case. I mean, John was dead for three months, and I’m assuming they called you on your phone? Did you  _ have  _ a phone before you died?” John shook his head and by the look on his face, he could see where Seth was going with it, “Exactly. So how did the school possibly get that number when it should’ve already had Bobby’s? Are you even sure it was actually the school and not somebody else?”

“Why, though?” John asked, sitting forward, his anger over the secret that had been kept from his momentarily set to the side while he focused on the case again.

“Because he was onto you two. Two people, looking into every weird thing happening, and from out of town? He knew you were Hunters and he was trying to keep you two focused on something else other than him. If I were to give a guess, I’d say he’s just about done here and was just buying enough time to hop town.” 

“What are we up against?” John demanded. 

“Well, Bobby called me. You remember what I asked you about, right? You’ve got a Trickster on your hands.” 

“A Trickster?” Dean repeated. 

“A specific kind of pagan. They’re found from a variety of religions, and they tend to have a pretty easy MO to spot when you know what you’re looking for. They dish out ‘just desserts’, ironic deaths that usually have little ground in reality. They also tend to have a more literal sweet tooth, which can be useful for spotting one if you realize that’s the kind of case you’re working. Each Trickster is a bit different, some of them don’t abide by the same moral code and such. Doesn’t matter too much.” Seth rattled off. 

“And how do you kill it?”

“Most pagans can be killed by a stake to the heart. And I came prepared.” Seth reached into his jacket and pulled out three such stakes, already sharpened to points. He tossed one over to Dean and then another over to John. “Alright, let’s go.”

“We don’t know who it is yet.” Dean pointed out. As excited as he was to gank this motherfucker, that didn’t mean he was ready to kill someone they find who just happens to be eating a candybar at the wrong time. 

“And I’m not hunting this Trickster until you tell me why you’ve been after one.” John said decidedly. Dean wasn’t sure when John would’ve had the chance to talk to Seth and for Seth to tell him about a particular hunt he was after - the two were pretty far from friends, barely even able to be considered acquaintances.

“Maybe you should mind your own business.” The girl folded her arms and gave John the kind of ‘bitch face’ that was so much like Sammy’s Dean was left speechless for a moment. It seemed to have had the same effect on John. 

“Ava, it’s okay.” Seth set a hand on his, uh, sister’s? Daughter’s? On the girl’s shoulder. “I have a lot of unfinished business, and there’s a specific Trickster I’ve been hunting. Loose ends to tie up, and all. I’ve managed to find cases of a few other Tricksters, but none have been the right one.”

John stared down Seth for a bit longer, but Seth didn’t seem to mind, taking it easily in stride. Finally, John spoke.

“Let’s go get this son of a bitch.”

oOo

“So, what’s he to you, anyway?” Dean asked the girl who was apparently named Ava. John and Seth walked at the front of their group, apparently neither wanting to let the other ‘lead’. They were on their way to the diner, the site of the first and last attack. They’d very briefly looked into the staff and hadn’t found anything of note, but Seth made it sound like he thought they missed something and Dean had to agree.

“Who, John? Don’t know yet, but so far he looks like a pain in the ass and I hope he gets killed on a hunt.” Ava snorted.

“No, and that’s my dad you’re talking about.” Dean said. 

“Mm.”

“Are you, like, Seth’s daughter?” 

“I wish.” She said, staring at Seth’s back. 

“Then he’s, what, babysitting you for some Hunters?” Dean might’ve said it mockingly, but he and Sammy really owed a lot to Hunter’s who had stable enough living situations to look after a couple of terrible kids for a few days. Speaking of, it’d been a while since Dean had seen Pastor Jim, might be worth finding a reason to hop on over there.

“More like I’m permanently relocated to the Bunker.”

“The Bunker?”

“That’s what Seth calls his house. It’s super rad, maybe you’ll be able to stop by sometime. As long as you don’t bring John Winchester.” Ava said the name ‘John Winchester’ like it was of the highest insult.

“I take it that Seth makes it pretty known around ‘the Bunker’ that he doesn’t like John, then.” Dean raised his eyebrows. 

“No, I’m a teenager, I can draw my own conclusions. And I have personal experience with parents who suck.”

“My dad-”

“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I think you’re lucky to have Bobby to officially fall back on. I have parents who don’t hate me enough to let Seth officially adopt me, and don’t love me enough to keep me home. I’m lucky Seth came by, you know? Who knows what my parents would’ve done.” Ava stared at Seth’s back. 

“Wait, what happened?”

“Some supernatural crap. Things got out of hand- well, almost out of hand. Seth showed up, fixed it, and my parents were too terrified after so Seth took me back to the Bunker. Not that I’m the only one there. There’s me, Max, Andy and Ansem, Jake, Lily - thank god there’s another girl there! And after this, Seth and I are stopping by Windom to pick up a couple more people.”

“That’s a lot of people.” Dean had no clue Seth had such a daycare set up. 

“It’s a big place.” Ava shrugged. She looked over at him, head tilting in consideration, “You have a brother, right? Sam? You two should stop by some time.” 

Before Dean could say anything to that, they’d reached the diner. There was police tape all around it, and the glass door had yet to be replaced, some cardboard taped over it. They walked right past and into the building. It was as good a place as any to start.

“Hello? Someone there?”

Dean couldn’t help the surprise at seeing that somebody else was there already. The chef stepped into the main diner, a bag slung over his shoulder. The man was on the short side with dirty-blonde hair he’d slicked back. He regarded the group with his own look of surprise.

“Hey, didn’t expect to see you two again. Need something else for your story?” The chef asked. Dean and John had posed as reporters throughout the case. 

“Just wanted some pictures. You know, now with the crocodile attack now also tied to this scene.” John lied easily.

“Well, don’t let me stop you, I was just on my way out. Left some things, you know? Don’t tell the police on me, ey, and I won’t tell on you.” The chef’s eyes were practically sparkling as he winked at them. 

“Oh, I don’t think it’s the police you need to be worried about.” Seth said, stepping forward, and John matched the step. The chef raised an eyebrow.

“Ah, I see how it is. You murdered the boss, didn’t you? I didn’t buy that phony ‘crocodile’ story for a moment. Come to kill me too?” The chef’s eyes still had that twinkle as he looked at Seth, and one hand went to his pocket. Dean tensed, but all the chef pulled out was a lollipop that he stuck into his mouth. 

“Pretty close.”

Seth blurred into action, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the wooden stake, aiming to stab the chef right in the chest. The man ducked and twisted out of the way, darting up onto one of the tables. Dean took out his own stake and John did the same, although he was looking at both Seth and the chef with a degree of caution.

“That’s proof enough for you?” John asked, voicing Dean's own question. Was it suspicious as hell the guy was here and was eating candy? Yeah, sure, but it still felt like jumping the gun.

“No. The proof is that Loki didn’t even bother to change his appearance from the last time I saw him.” Seth said, and there was an odd grin in his voice. The chef - Loki - smiled impishly, head tilting to the side like a curious bird. 

“I don’t think I’ve had the same pleasure.” Loki claimed. He brought his hand up and snapped his fingers. 

Just like that, a unicorn, Captain America, and a crocodile materialized in the diner. 

Dean dodged out of the way of the charging unicorn, shoving Ava out of the way as well. Seth ran after Loki, who seemed to think it was a fun game as he jumped from table to table, always one step ahead of the Man of Letters. From there, it was a blur. 

The diner was small, certainly not made to contain a fight of any kind, and Dean had a hard time keeping track of everything. One second he was stomping on the crocodile's mouth to keep it shut, the next he was barely avoiding being decapitated by Captain America’s shield with Ava hissing at him to watch out. Seth kept his chase up after the pagan. Ava was staying out of the way for the most part, but her eyes were darting to and fro from every moving thing, a hand outstretched like she was trying to grab something out of the air and frustration written plainly on her face. Dean didn’t understand why they’d taken her along if she didn’t have a weapon. 

And then, more suddenly than it'd started, it was over.

The crocodile, superhero, and unicorn disappeared, suddenly dust in the wind, and even the dust faded away. The sudden switch from fighting to there being nothing was jarring and Dean was thrown off enough to trip over his own feet. Ava was panting, flopping down onto the seat of a booth and grabbing some of the napkins from the dispenser to put to her nose. She looked over at Dean and gave him a thumbs up and then looked past him, raising her thumbs up high.

“Nice one, Molly!” 

Dean followed the directed words to Seth, John, and the body of Loki. The stake was plain as day in the pagan’s chest and thank anything out there it’d worked. Not that Dean had doubted Seth, but there was always that moment of nerves when facing a new monster you hadn’t tested a method on yet. Seth was pushing his hair out of his face, smoothing his jacket out. He still had his stake in his hand while John was now empty handed.

“And that’ll keep it down?” John asked. Seth nodded to the diner.

“You think the constructs would disappear if he was still alive?” He asked. He then sighed, giving the scene another look. “Dammit though, this was an active crime scene.” 

“And?” John asked. They’d messed with crime scenes before. 

“And your prints are all over the murder weapon.” 

“It’s not really murderer if it’s not human.” John sniffed.

“Yeah, well it’s still a human-looking body. Look, you guys head back and I’ll clean up here, figure out what to do with the body and the damage.”

Dean looked around the diner. It had been barely disturbed from the initial unicorn attack, but now there were chairs overturned, weird cracks in tables, pieces of wall busted up… yeah, not one of the cleaner kills. Not the messiest either, but still, Dean could see his point. 

“Don’t think we can?” John challenged. Seth rolled his eyes. 

“Look, for as much as this was your case, this was a white whale I’ve been after for some time. Let me deal with the wrap up. Please.” 

It was the please that did it, Dean would bet money on it. Seth, the Man of Letters, humbling himself to acknowledge that the case had been John and Dean’s. 

“... fine. And thanks.” John finally admitted. He nodded over to Dean. “C’mon, let’s start getting packed up. We’ll leave in the morning.” 

“Head back with them, Ava.” Seth directed. 

This time, as they walked the dark and empty sidewalks, Ava lagged behind them, and Dean couldn’t decide whether he liked the distance or not. 

John walked right next to him, and the atmosphere between them could be cut with a knife. The case was over, but the damage was still done. 

“Sir-”

“We’re not going to talk about it.” John growled. “Not now, not here. You’re seventeen, it’s not your fault,” For a second Dean perked up, but then the next words made Dean cringe away, “It’s Bobby’s. Never should’ve trusted reconnecting with Singer. We’ll deal with that next time we’re there.”

“When will that be, sir?” Dean dared to ask.

“Not for a long time, with any luck.”

Dean stayed silent the rest of the way to the hotel. 


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriel was thanking his lucky stars for having the forethought to send the construct out of the kitchen.

Not like a stake would kill him. It was a wooden stake, not even blessed or anything. No, the problem with that would’ve been when the stake didn’t even manage to pierce his chest. And, Gabriel had to admit, it was sort of fun watching the Hunters run around like that. 

There was only one left now, the one who claimed to have had a run in with him before. Gabriel peeked out, watching as the Hunter walked over to the 'corpse' and pulled out the stake, flipping it in his hand. 

“You know, you can come out now.” The Hunter called out. 

Gabriel shook his head. Yeah, like he’d fall for that. The Hunter grabbed one of the stools by the counter, pulling it out and sitting down. 

“I can stay here all night, you know. I’ve been looking for you.”

Gabriel smirked. That was what Hunter’s did. But, well, maybe there was some fun left to be had tonight.

“A ‘white whale’, huh?” Gabriel said, stepping out into the lobby of the diner. Seth regarded him, and he smirked, shaking his head.

And then something weird happened. 

If it wasn’t so quiet, Gabriel would’ve missed it. He most definitely would’ve missed it if he had been tuned in to the Heavenly Host. 

It was a sound, a sound that came from the Hunter’s soul. A soul that was almost painful to look at. It was like it’d been flayed alive, had been dropped into boiling oil and burned and left in salt water afterwards, then splashed with bleach, and surrounded with an odd corona. It was by far the worst looking soul Gabriel had seen, and maybe if the sound coming from the soul had been screaming that would’ve made sense. But no, what came from the soul was Enochian. 

It took him a moment to place it. For the record, even if Enochian was his first language, it’d been a long time since he’s heard it and even longer since he’s dared to speak it. It’s not quite a word, more of a short phrase, like a phrase where one part doesn’t exist without the rest. It starts with a word that describes Eve in her entire essence, in her creation from Adam’s rib into a being, and then contradicts it with a word that’s used to encompass all of God’s creations that he views as his children, and then there’s an odd bit about a sword, thrown into a part of the phrase that means it’s more for context than anything else. 

It’s a rough and hodge-podge sort of thing. Enochian isn’t a very flexible language, a harsh oversight considering all the new words humans created that had no direct translation. That being said, the phrase the Hunter had created meant more or less ‘The Unbegotten Child of God’, said with the sharpness of a sword.

Gabriel almost laughed out loud, wonderfully surprised. 

This human man tried - and pretty well succeeded - in making an Enochian phrase for bastard. 

The two of them regarded each other. Gabriel didn’t know the man, he was positive they’d never met, he’d never forget a soul that looked like that. As damaged as it was, it was also impossible to tell anything about the Hunter. Or, well, there was  _ plenty  _ he could read from the soul, but none of it good and none of it useful to knowing what the Hunter wanted from him. He wondered about the Enochian, and now that he knew to listen to it, he could hear a litany of meaningless mutters constantly from the soul. It all had the cadence of Enochian, but not loud enough to really distinguish. 

Gabriel had seen a soul that could ‘speak’, so to say, before. Discarded vessels were known to do it if used for long enough. Some psychics could manage it. It was harmless, mostly. They were rare enough they were unlikely to meet each other, so the words said on that kind of ‘frequency’ were often never heard by another living being. 

It was more than a little odd that it was speaking Enochian.

Against his better judgement, Gabriel was intrigued. 

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Gabriel asked. 

“Here, a show of good faith.” The Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial, holding it up to clear view and then tossing it over to the angel. Gabriel looked it over - and a jolt of fear struck through him. 

It was holy oil. 

“Cooking oil?” Gabriel kept his voice light.

“I’ve been looking for you for a while, Gabriel. You see, I need the help of an archangel.” 

“And you think I’m going to help you?” Gabriel scoffed. The Hunter shrugged.

“You haven’t left yet.”

“Touché.” Gabriel ceded, going over to the bar and pulling out of the stools. “Tell me, who am I dealing with tonight?”

“Seth Wesson.” Seth held his hand out and Gabriel shook it.

“What is it that a Hunter needs an archangel for?”

“Not a Hunter. I’m a Man of Letters. And I need to know if an archangel has the fire power to take out a knight of hell.” 

“There are no knights of hell left. Is that some kind of test? Unless you mean Cain, of course, but I’m not going to touch him with a twenty-foot pole.” Gabriel attempted to look a bit closer at the soul, more instinctive than anything, and got nothing to show for his effort. 

“Could you do it?” 

“Of course. I’m not some seraph, I’m an archangel, the sword of God himself.” 

“Then I need you to kill one for me.”

“Cain-”

“Not Cain. There’s a Knight of Hell that slipped time. She’s still slipped, and I’m planning to bring her here.” Seth explained.

“To this diner?” Gabriel snorted. 

“No, but to this time more or less. First, I have to figure out the right spell. Or devise the right spell,” The last part was more muttered than anything, “But I’m going to need an archangel on call. I can’t risk her getting out.”

“What do I get out of it?” Gabriel regarded Seth Wesson, Man of Letters. 

“I don’t know what I can give an archangel posing as a pagan. I’d offer to keep your identity secret but, well, I need to live a bit longer and holding your big secret ransom seems like the worst way to do that. Dead men tell no tales, after all. Consider it an open check?” Seth offered. 

Gabriel considered the offer. 

He considered the man. 

He considered the mystery, a mystery of how a soul became like that. It’d take some pretty powerful things to do that kind of damage, especially without the soul becoming a demon. Things that, by all rights, would’ve been news in many of the circles he interacted with. 

Gabriel smirked. 

This might be interesting.

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve always liked the feel of this series as almost more ‘interconnected one shots’ rather than a full length fic as I sort of skip random amounts of time and if gives me the ability to add scenes from earlier if I want, but I’m curious if people would’ve preferred this as just one fic? Probably won’t do anything about that but I’m curious

**Author's Note:**

> Been very excited to get this chapter out! Idk what it is about him, but I find Gabriel to be a really intersting character and I've been dying to introduce him, and now he's finally here! Obviously he won't be showing up much in the immediate future, but I'm glad he's now introduced :) 
> 
> The whole 'Seth's soul speaks Enochian' thing is something that I plan to expand a bit more on in future fics, but more than anything it's just a cool little thing I thought of and wanted to play around with :) 
> 
> Up next: Sam's time in Sioux Falls :D
> 
> I made a playlist for this fic if you wanted to hear some bops [Right Here :)](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BAjHlD5f6zt9YYaBKR91S?si=HjvloA0NS1eCU7jeQ2J7Kg)


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